Rupe

EUSTIS -- Since bowing out in the first round of last year's regional volleyball tournament to Cocoa Beach, Eustis High middle hitter Jessica Rupe has been on a mission. Not content to rest on her laurels from a solid junior season, Rupe, 17, a six-foot senior, played a rigorous spring schedule for a Lake County club team. It sharpened her skills and boosted her confidence against some of Central Florida's top volleyball talent. Rupe has parlayed that experience and desire into a memorable season, helping her Panther squad to a 13-5 record after winning the Class 3A, District 7 title last week.

Bahrain -based non-resident Indians investing in property in their homeland are set to benefit from the depreciation in the value of the Indian rupee against the US dollar. The rupee's steep decline has made it cheaper to buy real estate with Bahraini dinars which is pegged to the dollar. According to data from remittances and foreign exchange company UAE Exchange, the rupee was valued at 55.3 rupees against the dollar, having reached a record low of 57.3 rupees last week.

The Indian rupee touched a record low of 56.97 against the US dollar in morning trading Friday on global risk aversion and rising demand for dollars. The rupee opened at 56.80 to the dollar, lower than Thursday's close of 56.30. The currency touched its previous all-time low of 56.57 in intra-day trading Thursday. Analysts said increased capital outflow from equity markets and the rising demand for dollars from oil and gold importers were pulling down the Indian currency.

EUSTIS -- Perhaps the best evaluation of a player doesn't come from her coach, but from an opposing coach, whose critical eye watches a player on the court, looking for her weaknesses. With that in mind, higher compliments probably couldn't have been paid to Eustis' senior middle hitter Jessica Rupe, the Orlando Sentinel's girls volleyball player of the year for Lake and Sumter counties, than those from Tavares Coach Kristin Allen. In explaining why she thought Rupe should be considered for the honor, Allen wrote: "She embodies what it takes to be a top athlete.

When Donald Rupe of St. Cloud was a young teen, he suffered the loss of both his brother and mother within two years. During that difficult time, Rupe, who had always been active in school chorus and band, found a creative outlet, supportive friendships and solace in the footlights of the stage. The 19-year-old junior at Florida State University is giving the gift of theater back to the Osceola community. Rupe is co-founder and theater director of Nothin' Productions, a nonprofit theatrical-production company made up of teens and young adults from Central Florida.

ST. PETERSBURG - Make a note of this name, because you likely will be hearing it a lot someday: Ryan Rupe.The only question is whether his date with destiny comes in 1999 or sometime later.When the Tampa Bay Devil Rays invited this 23-year-old pitcher to spring training, they didn't think for a moment that he had a chance to make the big-league team.But Rupe made them think again.``He has taken advantage of an opportunity that wasn't even given to him,'' said Rays pitching coach Rick Williams.

A Washington state death row inmate is attempting to prevent his own execution by saying he is too heavy to hang.Attorneys for Mitchell Rupe say the state's hanging plan, borrowed from a military manual, cannot be used in Rupe's case because a table showing how far a hanged inmate should drop, based on weight, only goes up to 220 pounds.Rupe, at a physical examination last fall, weighed 409 pounds.''There is a significant chance that Mitchell Rupe will be decapitated if hanged under the protocol used by the state of Washington,'' argued Rupe's attorney, Todd Maybrown.

In an effort to quell any fears that hanging 409-pound Mitchell Rupe could lead to his decapitation, the state says it plans to drop Rupe 3 1/2 feet instead of the 5-foot drop used to execute Charles Campbell. In court filings, the state said its experts don't think a 5-foot drop actually would pull off Rupe's head. However, Corrections Department lawyer Paul Weisser said, ''He would have a swift, painless death at 3 1/2 feet, so why do more?'' Weisser said the distance was chosen on the advice of experts and after testing of weight and ropes at the prison in Walla Walla.

THIMPHU (Kuensel/ANN) -- Bhutan's department of geology and mines (DGM) is working on a proposal to auction five stone quarries and five dolomite mines, in response to the call of the government for ideas to improve rupee earnings. "We've put it to the cabinet as a possible area, and they've sent it to various agencies to reconfirm," DGM's director general Sonam Yangley said. While auctioning of the stone quarries could go through easily, since there is no restriction on its export, dolomite mines might need government's consideration.

LONDON -- Rupert and James Murdoch are due to appear next week at the U.K. inquiry into media ethics set up in the wake of the phone-hacking and police corruption scandal at the Murdoch -owned News of the World . In a witness list for the Leveson Inquiry posted Thursday, James Murdoch, who recently ankled as chair of U.K. paybox BSkyB, is set to be questioned at the proceedings on Tuesday. News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch is scheduled to appear on Wednesday and, if necessary, Thursday.

TAVARES — Emmalee Fore goes to sleep at night with a stuffed teddy bear. Pulled over its top is a sweater once belonging to her toddler son, Blake Rupe. "That's all I have left," she told Circuit Judge Mark Nacke this week before the sentencing of David Tatara, who was found guilty last month of second-degree murder in the death of Blake. Tatara was sentenced at the Lake County Judicial Center to life in prison. When Nacke handed down the sentence to Tatara, 30, for the December 2008 death of the 15-month-old, relatives of Blake seated in the courtroom let out a collective sigh of relief and briefly clapped.

TAVARES — A Lake County jury found David Tatara guilty Tuesday of second-degree murder in the death of toddler Blake Rupe, a tragedy that triggered an internal probe at the state Department of Children & Families. Tatara, 30, the boyfriend of Blake's mother, Emmalee Fore, claimed that the little boy was fatally injured in December 2008 in an accidental fall from a playpen that tipped onto the tile flooring of their home in Tavares. But assistant state attorney Bill Gross used a "crash-test" dummy – roughly the weight and height of the boy – to demonstrate to jurors that the playpen did not tip over as Tatara claimed in a written explanation to police.

TAVARES - Blake Rupe's brief life was filled with bumps, bruises and broken bones. A Lake County jury will be asked to decide if the toddler's death in Tavares nearly three years ago was caused by a tumble from a playpen or his mother's boyfriend who, a prosecutor says, "didn't really want kids. " David Tatara, 30, could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in Blake's death, which spawned a pending lawsuit that accuses the state Department of Children and Families of failing to protect the boy and his sister, Stacy, now 5. The agency had been involved with the family for years.

When Donald Rupe of St. Cloud was a young teen, he suffered the loss of both his brother and mother within two years. During that difficult time, Rupe, who had always been active in school chorus and band, found a creative outlet, supportive friendships and solace in the footlights of the stage. The 19-year-old junior at Florida State University is giving the gift of theater back to the Osceola community. Rupe is co-founder and theater director of Nothin' Productions, a nonprofit theatrical-production company made up of teens and young adults from Central Florida.

RHP Ryan Rupe allowed two runs, one earned, in four innings in a 9-8 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater. . . . LHP Wilson Alvarez, coming off shoulder problems, is close to clinching a spot in the rotation. . . . Utility player Bobby Smith has seen a lot of time this spring at first base.

CF Randy Winn had three hits and drove in a run in a 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles in Fort Lauderdale. . . . 2B Brent Abernathy: "I don't ever accept anything. If I hit .300, I want to hit .320. I always expect more of myself.'' . . . RHP Ryan Rupe has been working on a sinking fastball.

EUSTIS -- Perhaps the best evaluation of a player doesn't come from her coach, but from an opposing coach, whose critical eye watches a player on the court, looking for her weaknesses. With that in mind, higher compliments probably couldn't have been paid to Eustis' senior middle hitter Jessica Rupe, the Orlando Sentinel's girls volleyball player of the year for Lake and Sumter counties, than those from Tavares Coach Kristin Allen. In explaining why she thought Rupe should be considered for the honor, Allen wrote: "She embodies what it takes to be a top athlete.

EUSTIS -- Since bowing out in the first round of last year's regional volleyball tournament to Cocoa Beach, Eustis High middle hitter Jessica Rupe has been on a mission. Not content to rest on her laurels from a solid junior season, Rupe, 17, a six-foot senior, played a rigorous spring schedule for a Lake County club team. It sharpened her skills and boosted her confidence against some of Central Florida's top volleyball talent. Rupe has parlayed that experience and desire into a memorable season, helping her Panther squad to a 13-5 record after winning the Class 3A, District 7 title last week.